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| Clethra is the most interesting shrub planted - buds, flowers, fragrance, and pollinator attraction. |
The two Clethra shrubs started out strong this spring, and I looked forward to their Cinnabon fragrance and blooms. The fragrance cannot be missed from 10 feet away. This seems to begin with actual blooming but lasts the rest of the season.
We are nearing the end of July and the buds are only starting to open up. I caught the first sweet and cinnamon aroma when a couple of buds bloomed. Once I moved them to the front yard, their bonus features began to be realized.
Everything else has bloomed, so the celebrity Clethra is the last to arrive at the party. Hundreds of Bee Balm and Shasta Daisy bloom, plus a second round of rose blooms have attracted the bees and a few butterflies. The Clethra opening increases the impact of a pollinator garden, yard, and property.
Clethra has no competition in fragrance and even less competition in petite, fancy blooms. I get an endless supply of garden catalogs, usually featuring strange flowers that will never be sold at the local hardware store. I have tried exotic and highly touted fancy blooms. Nothing compares to Clethra, which looks dainty but remains hardy and disease free.
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| Joe Pye and Bee Balm flowers are crawling with various bees and insects once their buds turn to blooms. The vanilla scent is strong this year, like being in a car parked in the sun, with windows up and a new freshener doing its work. |
Joe Pye takes second place for late blooming. The Military Gardening Club was fascinated with its growth, reaching 8 feet before the wind storm knocked down some of the tallest stalks. The buds were so promising; the large, compound blooms are more of a hairy version of the buds, truly anti-climatic, except for one thing. The blooms are at eye level and swarming with bees and insects. I watch them, inches away.
As Jessica Walliser promised - or threatened - the dynamic insect population easily becomes dominant over the flowers, an ever-changing movie ending in thousands of seeds. I have her masterpiece on Kindle, so I can match the insect desired to the most favorable host.
Berries for Birds and Scoundrels
Meanwhile, the birds are being fed better than Roman emperors. Scratch away some leaf litter and there are Wild Strawberries offering tiny treats. Triple Crown Blackberries are at all stages of growth, from pale to black. The Society of Scoundrels (squirrels) cannot keep up, so birds drop by all the time to check up on how their crop is doing.Some of the meanest Raspberries ever grow in the jungle area.
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| The white elderflowers signal where insects, birds, and squirrels will find nutrition. |
I tend to overlook the giant Elderberries, but why? I planted two varieties from Almost Eden and put a tool shed between them. Earlier they were 10 feet tall with big white clouds floating (elderflowers) in the green leaves. Now they are black fruit. I have to remember to try some of the thousands ripening.
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| Poke Weed flies in with the birds and grows to feed its transportation crew - almost like it was planned from the beginning. |
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| Like many plants, Poke has several sets of helpers. Scientists are divided, but this looks like a clear case of design. |
Poke Weed is planted in abundance where birds congregation. They form a jungle around the abandoned bird (squirrel) feeder. They host beneficial insects in the bud stage and feed more birds than any other food with its fruit. This begins to develop in July.
Mrs. Ichabod loves berries, which are highly nutritious. The mutually approved deal is this - she gets as many fresh berries (blueberries, blackberries) and older leftovers are added to the barrel tops.
The Beauty Berries are just starting to form. They will finish the gardening season by glowing like lavender jewels. Did I mention they are bully plants? Yes, the two original samples now touch branches and seek to take over their section of the backyard. But they will provide the latest fruit of the year for birds to eat, a thank-you for entertaining us with song and feeder antics.
